7.28.2010

No-bake Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake

I wanted to find a good dessert for the John's-gone-for-the-weekend brunch, and then this recipe came up on The Kitchn. The blog where the recipe originally appeared is written by some pretty artsy, camera savvy Europeans. They take amazing pictures, and they seem to know how to make dessert taste good without involving a million calories.

Like the name implies, you don't have to heat anything up to make this recipe. In fact, if you know how to work a blender, the rest is pretty easy. Blend some fruit. Mix in some marscapone. Put it in a pan. I even bought ground almonds to ease the pain of having to grind almonds myself (I know, my life is hard). I think next time around I'd skip the dates for the crust and make it almonds-only. I also didn't use coconut oil because I have NO clue as to where to buy it. But I'm sure that a food processor could make the dates smaller and that coconut oil would be really flavorful. I just used corn oil and called it a day.

I definitely don't feel as guilty eating this, knowing what's in it, and I will probably try it again, maybe with another berry.

Grind almonds in a blender or a food processor for about a minute. Add dates, coconut oil and salt and run the processor until it all comes together. Flatten it out on the bottom of an 8-inch non-stick spring form. Store in the fridge while you make the filling.

Blend berries, lemon juice and honey. Stir together mascarpone, curd and the blended berries in a large bowl. Pour it on top of the crust in the spring pan and put it in the freezer for 1-2 hours (you can keep it in the freezer for days but then you have to let it soften a bit before you serve it) .